Members of Venezuela’s interim government met with the country’s Opposition party on Thursday (June 18, 2026) to discuss a “roadmap for a dialogue on a democratic transition,” the U.S. State Department said.

The meeting between National Assembly chief Jorge Rodriguez and former Opposition lawmaker Dinorah Figuera — who returned to Caracas on Thursday (June 18) after eight years of exile — “is a first step in what will be a thoughtful process to secure a free and open Venezuelan society,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

A doctor by training who became president of the National Assembly in 2015, Dinorah Figuera, 65, went into exile in 2018, fleeing after receiving “threats and harassment” for serving as the spokesperson for her fellow Justice First party member Fernando Alban, who died in prison that October.

President Nicolas Maduro was captured in January during a U.S. military raid and arrested on drug trafficking charges, and the Venezuelan government has since been led by his Vice-President, Delcy Rodriguez, on an interim basis.

Upon her return to Venezuela, Ms. Figuera sought to distance herself from Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, who has recently launched her own initiative to negotiate a Venezuelan democratic transition.

Also Read | Trump says U.S. military strike killed leader of Tren de Aragua gang with help from Venezuela

“At this time, I am responding to an invitation from the State Department to assume all of these challenges… in terms of having a credible National Electoral Council,”Ms. Figuera told reporters upon her arrival at the airport.

The National Assembly later confirmed Ms. Figuera’s meeting with Jorge Rodriguez — who is the interim president’s brother — “in her capacity of representing opposition lawmakers from the 2015-2020 term.”

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas stated that Ms. Figuera had met in April with a State Department official “to discuss the ways toward a stable, orderly and consolidated democratic transition.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month addressed Washington’s desire for Venezuelan elections, telling reporters: “Clearly we need to have a new electoral committee, and ultimately, Venezuela’s future is free and fair multi-party elections.”

White House and State Department ‍officials have told U.S. oil executives in recent weeks that they would need to return to Venezuela ​quickly and invest significant capital in the country to revive the damaged oil industry ‌if they wanted compensation for assets expropriated by Venezuela two decades ago, according ​to two people familiar with the outreach.

In the 2000s, Venezuela expropriated the assets of some international oil companies that declined to give the state-run oil company PDVSA increased operational control, as demanded by late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. U.S. oil major Chevron was among the companies that negotiated to stay in the country and form joint ventures with state-run PDVSA, while rivals Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips left and filed for arbitration.

President Donald Trump said on Saturday (January 3, 2026) that American companies were prepared ​to return to Venezuela and spend billions to reactivate the struggling oil sector, ⁠just hours after President Nicolás Maduro was captured and removed by U.S. forces.

In the recent U.S. administration discussions with oil executives in the scenario that Maduro was out of power, officials have said that U.S. oil companies would ​need to front the investment money themselves to ⁠rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry. That would be one of the preconditions for them eventually recovering debts from the expropriations.

That would be a costly investment for firms such as ConocoPhillips, the sources said. Conoco for years has tried to recover some $12 billion from the Chavez-era nationalization ‌of its Venezuela assets. Exxon Mobil also filed international arbitration cases, trying to recover $1.65 ‌billion.

Mr. Trump began making public reference to the Venezuelan expropriations when he ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers last month.

Conditions for a return

Whether or not ‍the companies return would depend on how executives, boards and shareholders evaluate the risk of renewed investment in Venezuela, the sources said.

“ConocoPhillips is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global ‍energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments,” a company spokesperson said in emailed comments to Reuters on Saturday (January 3). The company reiterated the statement on Sunday when asked about discussions with administration officials for this story.

Exxon did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters on Sunday (January 4).

Politico first reported on the recent discussions on Saturday (January 3). Even if companies do agree to return to the country, it could be years before there is a meaningful boost to oil output. The South American country has one of the largest estimated reserves in the world, ⁠but production has plummeted over the past decades amid mismanagement, lack of investment and U.S. sanctions.

Besides uncertainty surrounding the contract framework for any operations there, companies considering ​a return would also need to deal with security concerns, poor infrastructure, questions about the legality of ⁠the U.S. operation to capture Mr. Maduro and the possibility of long-term political instability, analysts have told Reuters.

Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, produced as much as 3.5 million barrels per day in the 1970s, which at the time represented over 7% of global oil output. Production fell below 2 million bpd during the 2010s and averaged around 1.1 ⁠million bpd last year, or just 1% of global production.